Toddy Stewart is an award winning multidisciplinary filmmaker. He’s a documentary filmmaker, a visual artist and an editor who shoots. He spent 12 years running an award winning production company as executive creative director, executive post producer and in-house filmmaker and supervising editor.
“Do you consider yourself a director?”
”First of all, I don’t consider myself anything… I fell into movies more just by making them, starting when I was seventeen, and I’ve done all the jobs.”
”Is there one you prefer?”
”No, I like all the jobs. At the time, when everything was on film, I liked the editing, so I was an assistant editor.”
- Mathieu Amalric on filmmaking, Criterion Kitchen Conversations
“Rick loves music, and that’s really why I decided to work with him. It’s not because of his technical skill; he has no musical skill, he plays no instrument really, not even a guitar. He just loves music.”
- Tom Petty on Rick Rubin, Somewhere You Feel Free: The Making of Wildflowers
“I believe in the impossibility of existence, in the humour of mountains, in the absurdity of electromagnetism, in the farce of geometry, in the cruelty of arithmetic, in the murderous intent of logic.”
- J.G. Ballard with V.Vale, RE/Search
Often partnering with creative directors, commercial and fashion photographers, fine artists and fellow directors, he has an Emmy statuette with his name on it and in his various roles as editor, supervising editor, executive post producer, executive producer, director and art director, has been celebrated with Clios and Reggies, Addies and Tellies, golden high fives, graphite this’s and platinum that’s, Staff Picks and online features and AICP & Webby nominations, best of’s and shortlists. His handiwork has been presented at the Tribeca Film Festival, Cannes Lions, the Ciclope Festival, Santa Barbara Film Festival, Berlin Fashion Film Festival, New York Film Festival, La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, Byron Bay Film Festival, New York Surf Film Festival, Canadian Surf Film Festival, London Surf Film Festival and Surfilm Festibal San Sebastián, Festival Maribor among others. Toddy curated and operated the Picture Farm Gallery from 2011 to 2018.
He has spoken at SXSW about how to make the advertising industry more inclusive and at Advertising Week New York about how to optimize for an evolving digital world and participated in round tables at the NYC Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment about professional training programs. For his work developing a filmmaking internship and mentorship program at Picture Farm, in 2019 he was named a Small Business Administration Small Business Person of the Year and a Brooklyn Workforce Innovations Outstanding Employer.
In 2008 he made a paean to the rigors of a surfing life that holds enduring relevance. Sometimes he experiments with writing on Substack.
For commissions and collaboration inquiries, a sample reel or just to find out what he’s been doing lately, feel free to fill this in:
“If it is true that we are created by language, circumstance, and geography, I believe that literature offers us the chance, if we want it, to create ourselves again.”
- Deborah Levy, Letter To My Readers
Photo courtesy of Ivory Serra